Exchange 2003 Errors
Hi,
I've got some exchange errors (1018 errors) which we're running an offline defrag to see if we can fix. But we think the store is broken, mail is doing weird things.
We're thinking we'll export all the mail to PST's, create a new store, then import the mail back into the new store. Anybody have any thoughts on that?
My main question is : We have users all over the country using "outlook anywhere" to connect to mail. What will happen if I create a new store and they connect with their outlook and their OST when we rebuild it?
Thanks
I've got some exchange errors (1018 errors) which we're running an offline defrag to see if we can fix. But we think the store is broken, mail is doing weird things.
We're thinking we'll export all the mail to PST's, create a new store, then import the mail back into the new store. Anybody have any thoughts on that?
My main question is : We have users all over the country using "outlook anywhere" to connect to mail. What will happen if I create a new store and they connect with their outlook and their OST when we rebuild it?
Thanks
ASKER
Reading all the Internet guff suggested Microsoft pointed at a hardware fault but this in fact was unlikely, and more a corruption issue. We'll replace the disk anyway.
But I'd like to export the mail, start a fresh mail store, and import the mail back into it. But when a user with an ost opens their mail when the new store is back online what will happen. Will it empty their whole mail and resync, will it fail and need reconfiguring, or will it simply sync whatever is missing?
But I'd like to export the mail, start a fresh mail store, and import the mail back into it. But when a user with an ost opens their mail when the new store is back online what will happen. Will it empty their whole mail and resync, will it fail and need reconfiguring, or will it simply sync whatever is missing?
ok.. reconfig will not be required...it empty their whole mail and resync
I am Asuming that you mean (-1018 error).
yes if you se this error in the applciotion logs or you get this error while running the eseutil command means that you have issues with the database, which were possibly caused due to hardware issue.
by hardware issues i mean not just the hard disk on which the database resides, but it can be any part of the system which handles the exchaneg data.
now comming to you question about what happens the users when you create a new store.
again we asume that you are create a new database store and mount it, then move the outlook anywhere uses from the old database to the new store.
in that case the users will not have issues connecting to the new database as their profiles will automatically point to the new database.
now if we asume that you have mounted a blank database file in the exsisting mailbox store! then when the outlook user connect they might be prompted to to work offline or asked to recreate their profiles.
yes if you se this error in the applciotion logs or you get this error while running the eseutil command means that you have issues with the database, which were possibly caused due to hardware issue.
by hardware issues i mean not just the hard disk on which the database resides, but it can be any part of the system which handles the exchaneg data.
now comming to you question about what happens the users when you create a new store.
again we asume that you are create a new database store and mount it, then move the outlook anywhere uses from the old database to the new store.
in that case the users will not have issues connecting to the new database as their profiles will automatically point to the new database.
now if we asume that you have mounted a blank database file in the exsisting mailbox store! then when the outlook user connect they might be prompted to to work offline or asked to recreate their profiles.
Hello optimus_nz,
from your last post i see that you want to export the mail, start a fresh mail store, and import the mail back into it !
At this point i would like to get the following details:
* What kind of exchange server do you have exchange 2003, 2007 or 2010 ?
* If you have exchange 2003 then what is the version of exchange 2003 is it Standard or Enterprise ?
There are few ways to export the mail, start a fresh mail store, and import the mail back, but the procedure varies from exchange 2003 to exchange 2007.
You can also also consider creating a new mailbox store database, on a new hard disk and move the mailboxes from the old mailbox store to the new store.
when you move the mailboxes from one database to another the corruptions are not carried to the new database.
from your last post i see that you want to export the mail, start a fresh mail store, and import the mail back into it !
At this point i would like to get the following details:
* What kind of exchange server do you have exchange 2003, 2007 or 2010 ?
* If you have exchange 2003 then what is the version of exchange 2003 is it Standard or Enterprise ?
There are few ways to export the mail, start a fresh mail store, and import the mail back, but the procedure varies from exchange 2003 to exchange 2007.
You can also also consider creating a new mailbox store database, on a new hard disk and move the mailboxes from the old mailbox store to the new store.
when you move the mailboxes from one database to another the corruptions are not carried to the new database.
ASKER
Hi.
It's SBS 2003 - so exchange 2003...
It's SBS 2003 - so exchange 2003...
Ok,
Now if the exchange 2003 is enterprise, then i would suggest you to create a new Storage Group and a new database/mailbox store under the new Storage Group and move the mailboxes to the new database.
That best and easiest thing you could do to get out of the database with 1018 errors.
If your exchange 2003 is not enterprise edition, then there are two things that you can do.
first is using RSG (Recovery Storage Group), dismount the old database store and then move the database files(.edb+.stm), the exchange log files and .chk file to a different location , then try mounting the old database store using the Exchange system manager, this will cause the exchange server to mount a blank database, which would be free of corruption.
then create a RSG and associate it to the mailbox store that we are working on, and mount the old database files in the RSG and merge it back to the production, while merging the data from the old database to the new database in the production, the corruption in the old database are not carried to the over.
other than the RSG method there is a Tool called Exmerge, you can export PST out of the mailboxes using this tool, but there is a limitation to this tool.
this tool can only extract PSTs up to 2GB, so if you have a mailbox which is more than 2GB in size, then the tool will not be able to get all the data from that mailbox.
so you can extract all PST for all the mailboxes and then dismount the mailbox store, and mount a blank database and then again use Exmerge to import the PSTs back to the new blank database.
Note: Since we are working with production database, i would suggest that before you make any changes to the database, pls make sure that you have a good and most current backup of the database, to recover data from in case of any database loss.
Also if you plan to mount a blank database there are few drawback of it, like you would have to re-create the outlook profiles for all the users. And since you would be re-creating the outlook profiles, the uses signatures and rules will be lost if you dont back them up for individual users.
Have a happy trooubleshooting time :)
Now if the exchange 2003 is enterprise, then i would suggest you to create a new Storage Group and a new database/mailbox store under the new Storage Group and move the mailboxes to the new database.
That best and easiest thing you could do to get out of the database with 1018 errors.
If your exchange 2003 is not enterprise edition, then there are two things that you can do.
first is using RSG (Recovery Storage Group), dismount the old database store and then move the database files(.edb+.stm), the exchange log files and .chk file to a different location , then try mounting the old database store using the Exchange system manager, this will cause the exchange server to mount a blank database, which would be free of corruption.
then create a RSG and associate it to the mailbox store that we are working on, and mount the old database files in the RSG and merge it back to the production, while merging the data from the old database to the new database in the production, the corruption in the old database are not carried to the over.
other than the RSG method there is a Tool called Exmerge, you can export PST out of the mailboxes using this tool, but there is a limitation to this tool.
this tool can only extract PSTs up to 2GB, so if you have a mailbox which is more than 2GB in size, then the tool will not be able to get all the data from that mailbox.
so you can extract all PST for all the mailboxes and then dismount the mailbox store, and mount a blank database and then again use Exmerge to import the PSTs back to the new blank database.
Note: Since we are working with production database, i would suggest that before you make any changes to the database, pls make sure that you have a good and most current backup of the database, to recover data from in case of any database loss.
Also if you plan to mount a blank database there are few drawback of it, like you would have to re-create the outlook profiles for all the users. And since you would be re-creating the outlook profiles, the uses signatures and rules will be lost if you dont back them up for individual users.
Have a happy trooubleshooting time :)
ASKER
Thanks - I think i'm going the PST route.
When I create the blank store, do I then need to go into AD and create new exchange mailboxes for each of the users before I exmerge the mail back in? And does this then mean that each Outlook needs to have an account configured from scratch again?
Thanks for the complete reply as well...
When I create the blank store, do I then need to go into AD and create new exchange mailboxes for each of the users before I exmerge the mail back in? And does this then mean that each Outlook needs to have an account configured from scratch again?
Thanks for the complete reply as well...
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ASKER
Great - thanks for the update Cyrus. I'm not carrying this out for another week, so i'll let you know how I get on - if I can think of anything else I'll come back. Appreciate your time.
I am Glad ti help you.
will be eagerly waiting for ur response...
will be eagerly waiting for ur response...
Hi optimus_nz,
are you done with the re-creating the mailbox store. I was eagerly waiting to know what happended next.
Cyrus
are you done with the re-creating the mailbox store. I was eagerly waiting to know what happended next.
Cyrus
Any further updates...?
ASKER
Hi,
We're waiting for 1x user to return from overseas, So still waiting. I'll update.
We're waiting for 1x user to return from overseas, So still waiting. I'll update.
OK,
thanks for the update.
thanks for the update.
ASKER
Thanks Cyrus9,
FYI - all the profiles had to be recreated and mail resync'd.
I chose the export to PST and import into a blank store.
Oddly, the errors persist even after a fresh store
FYI - all the profiles had to be recreated and mail resync'd.
I chose the export to PST and import into a blank store.
Oddly, the errors persist even after a fresh store
Hello optimus,
can u post the errors that you are getting.
as mentioned in my first post this can be issue with the hardware, because of which you are haying this errors.
i would suggest a thorough check of the server should do good, also check for the system logs in the event viewer for possible hardware related errors.
refer to the following link: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/314917
good luck
Cyrus
can u post the errors that you are getting.
as mentioned in my first post this can be issue with the hardware, because of which you are haying this errors.
i would suggest a thorough check of the server should do good, also check for the system logs in the event viewer for possible hardware related errors.
refer to the following link: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/314917
good luck
Cyrus
means current OST will be wiped out with what is there on server
1018 points to hardware fault.. you might want to see with hardware vendor for RCA.
if you can affoard get a new disk and place new database in the new disk.. inform users and.. move their mailboxes
.. however move mailbox fail
if that fails
in that case .. move the database to new disk and them restore from backup .. so that new disk has good databse to start with